Mexico nabs gang leader in U.S. consulate killings

MEXICO CITY — A drug gang leader says he ordered the killing of a U.S. consulate worker because she gave visas to a rival gang in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, federal police said Friday.

Jesus Ernesto Chavez, whose arrest was announced on Friday, leads a band of hit men for a street gang tied to the Juarez Cartel, said Ramon Pequeno, the head of anti-narcotics for the Federal Police.

Pequeno said Chavez ordered the March 13 attack that killed U.S. consulate employee Lesley Enriquez and her husband as they drove in the violent border city, and he said Chavez told police that Enriquez was targeted because she gave visas to a rival gang.

A U.S. Embassy official said there would no immediate comment on the allegation.

Enriquez, who was four months pregnant, and her husband, Arthur H. Redelfs, were killed when gunmen opened fire on their sport utility vehicle after they left a birthday party. Their 7-month-old daughter was found wailing in the back of the vehicle.

Jorge Alberto Salcido, the husband of a Mexican employee of the consulate, also was killed by gunmen after leaving the same event in a separate vehicle.

Chavez told police that gunmen opened fire on Salcido because the two cars were the same color and the hit men didn’t know which one Enriquez was in, Pequeno said.

Pequeno said Chavez belongs to Barrio Azteca, a gang that works for the Juarez cartel on both sides of the border.

The Juarez cartel’s turf war against the Sinaloa cartel has made Ciudad Juarez one of the deadliest cities in the world. More than 2,600

… El Paso’s Barrio Azteca gang are some of the most dangerous in the country …. They are associated or members of that MS-13 … “They are very active they have over 2,000 members according to the El Paso police department,” … Azteca’s are attracted to El Paso because of the accessibility to drugs from Mexico, and he said members tend to be active drug dealers… Federal authorities point to the Mexican drug cartels who are ultimately responsible for border violence by having cemented ties to street and prison gangs like Barrio Azteca on the U.S. side. Azteca and other U.S. gangs retail drugs that they get from Mexican cartels and Mexican gangs. Mexican gangs run their own distribution networks in the United States, and they produce most of the methamphetamine used north of the border… continued … https://mcauleysworld.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/the-arizona-law-mexican-drug-cartels-threaten-mexican-democracy-leading-politician-assassinated-obamas-inaction-threatens-american-security/